


Rey Who?

by DarkSideOfMe



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker
Genre: Ben isn't really in the story, Breaking the Fourth Wall, F/M, Happy Ending, Meta, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-TRoS, Rey Johnson - Freeform, Reylo - Freeform, burn warning, fan fiction, paying homage to our king
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-02
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:54:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22075060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkSideOfMe/pseuds/DarkSideOfMe
Summary: What if Rian Johnson had to speak to Rey after the events of TROS?
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 37
Kudos: 72
Collections: TROS Reylo Fix-it Fics, The Rise of Skywalker: the Shitposting Collection





	Rey Who?

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: TROS spoilers, obviously.  
>   
> New gorgeous mood board by [@curiousniffin](https://twitter.com/curiousniffin/status/1246958981848981507).

Rey wakes at the crack of dawn. She smiles the same blank smile that she’s smiled the last one hundred and twenty-eight mornings. 

She smiles as she checks the condensers on the south ridge. She smiles as she eats a tasteless ration for her morning meal. 

She smiles as she quickly glances at the fifty-seven new holo messages that have arrived since yesterday, and she smiles as she deletes them all. An empty inbox is a happy inbox.

She also smiles as she eats her evening ration. It’s only after she turns out the lights in her quarters and she lays on her palette that the smile falls from her face and she cries herself to sleep.

On her one hundred and twenty-ninth morning, after smiling at the condensers and her disgusting ration bar, she feels a shiver in the Force. 

She wonders who it will be this time. Leia, urging her to go to Coruscant to root out corruption in the New Galactic Republic? Luke, scolding her into returning to her studies? Or will it be some other random Force ghost? She’d had visits from a dozen or so already. 

Regardless of who, what would they offer her this time? A warning that darkness was rising again in the galaxy and only she could stop it? Or would it be the secret to her _mother’s_ parentage? 

She’d blown up at the first few unexpected Force ghosts, but at this point she’s an expert at politely telling them to kriff off. She pastes her smile on her face and turns- 

-and stops.

Unlike her previous visitors, this one isn’t wearing flowing robes… nor is he transparent blue. 

It’s a man - with short cropped hair and clothes like none she’s ever seen - sitting at her dining table. “Hello, Rey,” he says with a sad smile.

It didn’t make sense that he had snuck up on the homestead. Rey had installed a robust security system to blast away any unwanted intruders. “Hello,” she said unsure, mentally checking that her saber was at her hip.

“Please, that won’t be necessary. Come, sit,” The intruder gestures at the seat across from him; Rey’s usual seat.

Rey is hesitant, but sits anyway. “Who are you?” She’s certain she’s not seen his image before.

The man sighs wistfully. “You deliver that line so well; it’s a great call back.” 

Rey blinks, not following him at all. “I’m sorry, are you a Jedi?” She can’t think of who else could get through her defense droids. Maybe if he is, she’d be off the hook with the Force ghosts. “Look, whatever you’re here for I’m really not interested in-”

“No.”

“No?”

“I’m not a Jedi.”

“Then who are you?”

He fixes her again with a sad smile. “I’m Rian Johnson.”

“Who?”

“The writer and director of The Last Jedi.”

“What?”

“I’m the one that dictated all the events of your life from your first conversation with Luke, until shortly after you escaped from Crait.”

“You what?”

The not-Jedi looks around the room. “I think I once considered - for a split second - working in a scene here, but I scraped it when it obviously had nothing to contribute other than nostalgia.” He sighs. “I guess you still ended up here anyway. I’m so sorry, Rey.”

“For..?”

“I feel conflicted. That I built up your relationship, sowed the seeds of your feelings, and for what? So you could lose him when someone else took over. For what you’ve gone through, Rey, I’m truly sorry.”

She’d stopped listening at the words _‘lose him’_. “Who are you talking about?” she whispers, even though the man could only be talking about one person.

The man looks to the table. “Yes, Rey. _Him_.” He sighs again tracing the edge of the table with his fingers. “I just didn’t think things would go so wrong.”

Her head spins. He was the first person to offer any kind of condolences for- _no, no, I’m not going to cry now_. “So someone else was responsible, after Crait.”

“Yes, starting about a year later.”

“Were they… _dictating_ … when, when…” She couldn’t say it. She already felt so numb.

“Yes, they dictated everything that happened on… Exegol.” He seems to wince at the name. “It seems they were in charge until shortly after you arrived here. You spoke with an old woman?”

Rey thinks back to the strange conversation. “Yes. I spent three days trying to figure out why I’d chosen Luke’s surname as my own. Why not ‘ _Solo’_?”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“Even ‘ _Organa’_ would have made more sense.” Her thoughts spun. “You said you once dictated the events of my life. Can you do it again? Can you change what happened?” _to him?_

“I’m sorry, Rey. No one can undo canon. Though apparently they can ret-con the shit out of it,” he grumbles.

She didn’t quite follow, but kept pushing. “If not the past, can you change my future? Set me on a path to bring him back?”

He sighs at the desperation in her voice. “I have a contract to do another trilogy but they won’t let me spend three movies just bringing him back. I’m sorry Rey, but there are limits to what I can get clearance for.”

“Then what can I do? There must be something.”

At this, the man - Johnson he said his name was - reaches into his pocket. “Take this.” She was expecting another dagger or a holocron or perhaps a kyber crystal, but instead he hands her a datapad. “This is all you need to set up an AO3 account?”

“A what?”

“It will give you access to thousands of parallel dimensions where circumstances have unfolded differently. Quite differently in some cases. Some you may not like, but in others I hope you can find what you are looking for.”

Rey’s pulse pounds in her ears. “I-” Was this real? Did it really mean what she thought it did?

Johnson just smiles knowingly. “Go ahead. He’s waiting for you.” And with that he stands and blinks out of existence. 

Rey looks down to the datapad and as she starts entering her information, she smiles the first real smile since she last saw _him_.

* * *

Bazine glances at the clock in the corner of her screen. _1:58 PM._ She sighs. Just another boring day as a receptionist at a large multi-billion dollar corporation. 

Being a Friday, the ornate three-story lobby is nearly empty, which is probably why Bazine notices when a woman - wearing a beige pencil dress and sunglasses - enters through the rotating doors opposite her. 

The woman walks across the marble floors with long, confident strides despite her rather tall heels. For a moment Bazine wonders if she’s an omega, or vampire, or perhaps just a dominatrix. Of course, she’s probably a successful business woman. Regardless the woman walks up to Bazine’s large black marble desk. “Hello. I have an appointment with Mr. Solo at two.”

Funny, Bazine didn’t remember scheduling anyone with a British accent. She glances at her screen; the two PM slot is blocked over with the end of his one PM meeting with Snalps Incorporated. “I’m sorry you don’t seem to have an appointment, miss…”

The woman had taken out a large black smartphone and had been tapping away. “Would you mind checking again? It really should be there now.” 

Bazine barely refrains from rolling her eyes. She gets this all the time, people asking her to recheck the schedule. Mr. Solo is a busy man - what with being a CEO and a lawyer and a doctor - and Bazine’s entire job is to keep his schedule running smoothly, so her eyes bulge slightly when the Snalps meeting is suddenly missing and ‘ _private meeting - do not disturb_ ’ is scheduled to start at two. “Umm, yes. I think I see you now. Can I have your name?”

The woman smiles. “Yes, it’s Rey Johnson.”

**Author's Note:**

> Now that this fic is a few months old and I've had some time to reflect, I think a better last line is,
> 
> _The woman smiles. “Rey. Just Rey.”_
> 
> I encourage you to go with whichever you like best.


End file.
